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BDS Incorporates UKSLC

BDS now presents UK Standard Library Categories as standard on BDZ and BDSLive, while UKSLC can be switched on as an option for BDS Direct Data Feed, EDI model and Autoresponse customers.

UKSLC, originally published as e4libraries Subject Category Headings and subsequently revised into its current format, is based on the BIC standard subject categories used in bookshops and by online retailers. The scheme is designed for the public library sector to provide library-oriented category headings applicable across the full range of adult non-fiction, fiction and children's and young adult stock.

It provides an anglicised subject category scheme as opposed to the American spelling and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) scheme which also used in BDS records.

BDS records include both the three letter UKSLC code as well as the full form of the code which appear in separate tags in BDS records. Many BDS customers have already chosen to use the full form which spells out the code to provide an extra subject access point for library users searching their OPACs. Others use the three letter code for shelving purposes.

“The offering of UKSLC is not meant to supplant LCSH,” says Sarah Armitage, “but it represents the flexibility of service that BDS always aims to achieve for its customers and reflects our ongoing efforts to ensure BDS metadata has built-in flexibility of application.”

BIC claims that the adoption of a scheme of BIC-based standard subject and genre categories, available to libraries, in addition to existing Dewey classifications, offers the opportunity to reduce costs and streamline workflows by automating the categorisation process, and to support further improvements in stock selection, management, discovery and display.